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General: Prestressed stone massively cuts embodied carbon

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      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 12th 2026
     
    This is interesting:
    https://www.greenregister.org.uk/civicrm/?civiwp=CiviCRM&q=civicrm%2Fmailing%2Fview&reset=1&id=5840&cid=40824&cs=f4a98d878cf7eb7a71342f57279ea33e_1773283838_720

    "... research into stone structures to help move their use back into everyday construction.

    Standing three storeys tall, the Stone Demonstrator shows stone’s potential as a contemporary, low-carbon, structural material.

    Natural stone offers a route to cut carbon emissions sharply. Compared with a conventional reinforced concrete frame, the Stone Demonstrator drops embodied carbon by roughly 70%, and by around 90% when set against steel.
    • CommentAuthorsgt_woulds
    • CommentTimeMar 12th 2026
     
    I don't know if you follow Lloyd Alter Tom, but he has been banging on about stone building for a while:

    https://www.treehugger.com/its-time-for-stone-construction-renaissance-6542470?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email


    This site may also be of interest:

    https://www.thestonecollective.org/building-in-stone?utm_source=substack&utm_medium=email


    25 years ago I was touring with the Goodyear Airship accross Europe, and I remember coming accross a newbuild apartment that was being built with raw quarried stones. My aging brain places it it Lyon, but I cannot be certain.

    The cubes or rock were square finished on 5 sides to allow them to fit together, but the front face was untouched, with all the moss, litchin, wildflowers, and bird nests still attached!

    It turned any otherwise ugly square building into a real architectural statement.

    They were also using some sort of pegging rather than mortar to hold them together but I cannot remember the details now. I really wish that camera phones were a thing back then...
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      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 12th 2026
     
    Good stuff! What a shock to the system (mine).
  4.  
    I visited the Stone Demonstrator at the end of last year.

    Despite the website claims, it was surprisingly difficult to access - surrounded by zip-tied hoardings. I ended up having to find a security guard to let me get closer.

    There's no doubt that it's visually and structurally impressive. A good advert for the stone brick product which uses smaller format units that can be laid by brickies but use less energy to manufacture.

    My only bugbear is that the embodied carbon calculations are difficult to find online, so it's difficult to say whether the numbers really stack up. Until we get a single recognised 'source of truth' on this issue, people can say anything they like to grab the headlines.

    Knowing who's involved in this project, I have no doubt they've done the maths and mean everything they claim, I just wish they published a paper or something similar to prove it..!
    • CommentAuthorsgt_woulds
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2026
     
    I've been down a rabbit hole, searching Google images to find the building I saw all those years ago :-)

    No luck unfortunately. This was the closest I could find:

    https://www.e-architect.com/london/15-clerkenwell-close


    Compared to the one I saw, to me - as a non architect - this looks like a bloody horrendous hotchpotch!

    The one I saw had spaced out the slabs as they would have been on the original rockface, which meant that the natural striation, weathering, and moss growth were aligned and created a cohesive facade.

    This new one looks more like a child had assembled it with 3 different Jenga sets.
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      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 13th 2026
     
    Oh yeah that one - I laughed, but quite like it.
    Looking at 'typical detail', looks like the columns are loadbearing, supporting the floors, yes in place of steel, but the transoms are backed by the usual hefty steels attached to conventional concrete floors/masonry and/or steel frame interior, to hold the columns upright.
    Far from stone replacing steel/concrete.
    But - am I wrong? - the glazing/wall behind the freestanding stone facade appears completely uninsulated and massively penetrated by thermal bridges! Freestanding structure used to be easy, standard architect-fare (like any Greek temple), until insulated envelope became essential. 'Structural thermal break' gaskets don't hack it.
    • CommentAuthorsgt_woulds
    • CommentTimeMar 16th 2026
     
    I guess there would be two routes:

    - Insulated box-in-structure

    - External insulate the whole thing. (Would need to find an easy way to attach insulation mechanical fixings - at mortar joints perhaps)

    If all we care about is reducing the carbon cost of construction, then using roughcut stone for the structure and external rnedered insulation is probably the most pragmatic option.


    Part of me yearns for a return to classical architechtural stone buildings though. I guess that would not be possible today since we don't have the slave trade or imperial theft to pay for the labour and materials...
  8.  
    It's hard enough finding a brickie, I can’t imagine what getting hold of a stone mason would be like (not to mention the cost!)
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      CommentAuthorfostertom
    • CommentTimeMar 16th 2026 edited
     
    Structural frame can easily be inside the weather- and insulation-skin - just that you'd think it then it can't 'express' the 'frame' externally, as this one attempts. With architectural ingenuity, this contradiction can be somewhat resolved. I think this one almost got there, but some structural-technical compromise was forced that the architects didn't anticipate until too late. They probably got Planning Consent looking like this but then, once committed, couldn't make it work technically.

    A stone structural frame would be fabricated and built by techniques more like steel erection, not by traditional bricklayer/masons.
    • CommentAuthorsgt_woulds
    • CommentTimeMar 18th 2026
     
    I think some of the suggestions are for standardised blocks sized for traditional brick laying.

    The idea being that cutting stone is less energy and carbon intensive than firing clay bricks or manufacturing cement blocks, whilst providing structural equivalence.

    I'm a fan of Strocks, but they cannot compete structuraly with bricks (and they are expensive), so this would be another low carbon alternative if they can make them cheap enough to compete with brick/block prices.
  11.  
    Another (positive) factor is that the smaller brick format can make use of stone that would otherwise not be useable due to appearance or defects.

    That *ought* to lead to lower upfront costs and therefore make them more competitive, but I think there are other factors that still cost more.

    Talking to the quarry owners, I got the sense that they are still just waiting for that 'one big job' that makes this into a reality. Imagine one of the major housebuilders got behind it and committed to a large order for a whole neighbourhood or new town - that would really make it take off.

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